Letters

Letters

In my time, I’ve seen political campaigns come and go, but I have never seen such out-and-out hatred of a candidate in my entire life as that displayed for President Barack Obama.

People are willing to believe any nonsense they hear on ultraconservative radio stations without a shred of proof. They’re willing to believe the out-and-out lies that are perpetrated on the Internet. The Christian churches are willing to break the law and tell people how to vote. Governments are going to the extreme extent of trying to change the voting laws of the United States to prevent many elderly people and others from voting at all.

An awful lot of people have begun to believe in fairy tales — really nasty fairy tales — perpetrated by the ultra-right-wing conservatives.

And yet, Mitt Romney got caught speaking off the cuff at a private fundraiser, and we all heard and saw him saying what he really thinks about many of us: that we believe we’re entitled and that we don’t pay income tax.

He said 47 percent of us don’t pay income taxes but think we’re entitled to health care, food and paid retirement.

I hope everyone around here realizes that seniors are the majority of the 47 percent he’s referring to. I’m sure people are assuming he means welfare recipients and undocumented aliens and such, but the truth is, they’re a small percentage of that 47 percent. Seniors are the majority.

I’ve got news for Mr. Romney. I paid for my own retirement. I paid taxes all my working life, and I paid for my Medicare all my working life. I’m from a working-class family, and we all paid for our own lives. We didn’t accept welfare; we didn’t let anyone else pay for anything for us, and we deserve to retire and have enough money to live a reasonable life.

Romney, who is independently wealthy, has no right to talk about the majority of elderly people in this country as if we’re a liability because we reached retirement age and are able to collect what we paid for all our working lives.

I hope everyone across the country knows exactly what they’re doing when they vote this year. Do you want someone who thinks that 47 percent of us aren’t worth worrying about, or do you want someone who cares what happens to all of us?

~ MARTHA SHAAK,

VIA EMAIL

Police state of mind

Some bloggers are reporting that the Department of Homeland Security recently purchased 450 million rounds of hollow-point bullets, as well as bullet-proof checkpoint booths that include “stop and go” lights. Federal authorities have been preparing for domestic civil unrest. Drones will now be patrolling the US.

Per Raymond Odiermo, Chief of Staff of the US Army, the Council on Foreign Relations wants to use the army to plan and carry out domestic law enforcement missions in the US. Using US troops in law enforcement duties is a complete violation of the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act, which severely restrict the use of the military for law enforcement except under precise and extreme circumstances.

The National Defense Authorization Act has stripped us of ALL constitutional rights and any citizen can be detained indefinitely.

These facts, along with several leaks stating the army is expecting to be engaged in the “resettlement” of US citizens, should be enough to frighten all of us. These are the types of actions taken by a police state.

We must clean out Congress in order to restore our rights. The Get Out of Our House (goooh.com) process gives us the opportunity to do so by replacing the corrupt politicians with true citizen representation that will uphold the Constitution.

~ K. BURSON,

VIA EMAIL

FROM THE WEB:

Re: “Fare game,” Sept. 6

You know, if this woman had not “lost” her ticket, and had presented one to the officer, there would have been no “incident” and no sensational story in the Pasadena Weekly. Oh, my! We couldn’t have something like THAT, could we? No sensational stories? No lawyers being hired? No lawsuits being filed? How boring. Better to shirk responsibility and cry, “I'm a victim! Do something! Reward me with $199,000 for breaking fare-evasion laws.” All this illustrates is the upside-down, Alice-In-Wonderland, bleeding-heart-liberal world in which we, unfortunately, are now forced to live in.

~ MILES POST

Miles Post, I really hope that I am misreading your post, and can’t quite believe I’m getting it right. Ms. Sameth HAD her ticket and later produced it (see the prior story/posts). You may be more organized than many of us, but some people need a little time to find a ticket in a purse. Regardless, that misses the point. No one, of any race or religion, gender or orientation, or of any age, or personality, deserves to be treated with violence and to have broken bones for any reason. I can’t believe anyone thinks otherwise.

~ BRINGMEFISH64

Re: “Two-way street,” Sept. 20

I received a similar letter from Gloria Molina’s office. I understand and agree with her concerns regarding health issues for residents living along the 710 corridor, but she misses the point regarding the solution to the problem. Building a toll tunnel will not relieve congestion on the 710 freeway and surrounding areas. Metro has traffic maps showing traffic flow both before and after a tunnel. The primary users of a tunnel will be trucks who are willing to pay the $20 toll. Cars most likely will not. So you still have cars spilling onto surface streets at the 710 portal. Using the tunnel as a truck route is not a sound investment at $14 billion — $780 million from Measure R funds — most of which will come from foreign investors. We taxpayers are already paying for the Alameda Corridor rail line. The solution is to reduce truck traffic on the 710 by using heavy rail to move cargo from the ports. That will reduce pollution significantly.

~ JANE D

I wholeheartedly agree with everything Jane D stated. It is our job as voters to REPLACE any and all elected personnel who support the ill-conceived tunnel/freeway proposals that would destroy our neighborhoods and would increase traffic, not alleviate it. Our votes are our voices. Let’s vote them all OUT!

~ JANRIK91105

CORRECTION:

We published an incorrect Web site for Cheveux Salon, the owner of which, Michael Gallego, tied for First Place in the Best Local Makeup Artist category of our annual Best of Pasadena contest. Cheveux Salon’s Web site is cheveuxhairandmakeup.com.

Bad cops are institutional gangbangers (AKA inhouse corporate terrorists) with a bad attitude. Fundamentally, they are in the aggrandizing business of self-gratuitously "controlling" all us potential criminals (with their focus being on "guilty-until-proven-collected-from).

And while money (the more the better) is a increasingly more frequent (though statistically less effective) buffer against having ones face pummeled, getting tazed, or even being shot dead because some young rube was unwise enough to let his hand pass too close to a belt-line, with the massive civil annihilation currently being composed by the bankster-class, only the wealthiest among us will ulitmately be able to comfortably avoid the the Federal Government's impending FEMA camp blues.http://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/06/26/...